Re: Inequalities HELP!!

My sons algebra teacher quit at the beginning of the year. He has struggled in math since he began school and unfortunately Im not much help. The school went through 11 substitutes in 1 year. The substitutes that they had bounced all over and no one really cared about the kids since it was a temporary job. 62% off the freshman class failed Algebra 1. In order to move on they have to take an online course for math that basically has a 5 minute tutorial on each subject. BUT if you dont understand the basics from subject to subject your pretty much screwed..which is where have 11 substitutes in 1 year left most of the kids!

Re: Inequalities HELP!!

Think of the absolute value as the "size" or "distance" of a number. For example |-4| = 4, since it is four units away from 0 on the number line, and |7| = 7, since it is 7 units away from the number line.

Also, in most of your questions, you have asked "which of these solutions is shown on the number line", without posting the number line in question...

Re: Inequalities HELP!!

Thank you Prove It and Plato..I guess Im confused as to where - are the same. Like in this problem Which of the following is equivalent to |x - 2| = 6?
These are the options that I narrowed it down to..but I cant figure out where the - comes in.

x – 2 = 6
x – 2 = 6 or x – 2 = -6
By working the problem I think the answer is x-2=6 however it could be x-2=6 or x-2=16

Re: Inequalities HELP!!

Originally Posted by zales127

Thank you Prove It and Plato..I guess Im confused as to where - are the same. Like in this problem Which of the following is equivalent to |x - 2| = 6?
These are the options that I narrowed it down to..but I cant figure out where the - comes in.

x – 2 = 6
x – 2 = 6 or x – 2 = -6
By working the problem I think the answer is x-2=6 however it could be x-2=6 or x-2=16